Abstract

We present (theory, experiment) two original techniques for laser spectral control with high efficiency of the laser frequency locking at the atomic absorption line. Such lasers are of essential interest as sources for optical frequency standards. The first technique employs the competition between the contrapropagated waves in a ring laser in the case of bi-direction injection locking control as shown in Fig. 1. The beam from the narrow-line (~1 pm) injecting laser (dye, Ti:Al₂O₃ or semiconductor) with intensity 1 is divided into two parts injected through the mirrors M₁ and M₂ respectively in opposite directions in the ring cavity M₁,M₂,M₃. The intensity of the contraclockwise part exceeds substantially (e.g. 0.8 I) this of the clockwise beam to force the laser to operate practically only in contraclockwise direction.

© 1996 IEEE